Socio-cultural practices may have affected sexual dimorphism in stature in Early Neolithic Europe

Samantha L Cox, Nicole Nicklisch, Michael Francken, Joachim Wahl, Harald Meller, Wolfgang Haak, Kurt W Alt, Eva Rosenstock, Iain Mathieson

Results

Distribution of stature, polygenic scores, and stable isotope values

  • Med males are significantly shorter than Central or Balkans (p=0.0027, beta=-1.314, se=0.4327)

  • Differences between Central and Balkan male femora are very small (North vs. South Central: p=0.2206, beta=0.419, se=0.3413; North Central vs Balkan: p=0.6319, beta=0.444, se=0.9247)

  • Female femora in the Med are similar to those in South Central and Balkan populations (Med vs. South Central: p=0.6445, beta=-0.251, se=0.5422; Med vs Balkan: p=0.4911, beta=-0.703, se=1.0189)

  • Female femora are substantially shorter in the North Central population (p=5^{-4}, beta=-1.988, se=0.5597)

  • Differences between male and female femur lengths are highly significant in all populations (p=0, beta=4.128, se=0.2275)

  • PRS for height are very similar between all populations (min. p=1, DF=225)

  • PRS constructed with LDpred show Med individuals are shorter (p=0.0073, beta=-0.511, se=0.1888)

  • PRS constructed with sibling summary stats show similar PRS in all populations using both LDpred (min. p-value between Balkans and Mediterranean =0.0993, DF=225) and clumping/thresholding construction methods (min. p-value between Balkans and Mediterranean =0.1432, DF=225)

  • No significant differences between male and female PRS in any population (p=0.7647, beta=0.076, se=0.254)

  • Med and Balkan groups are significantly distinct from Central Europe in 13C (vs. Balkans p = 10^{-4}, beta=0.541, se=0.136; vs. Med p = 0, beta=1.5, se=0.2443)

  • North Central is different from South Central and Balkan groups 15N (vs. South Central p = 0, beta=0.865, se=0.1425; vs. Balkans p = 0, beta=5.049, se=0.2369)

  • Nitrogen is generally elevated in males compared to females, but only significant in the Med (p = 0.0145, beta=1.293, se=0.5276, bf=-0.0119678) BF indicates that there are no inteaction effects, so differences in N are not systematically different between sexes and regions

Patternes of non-genetic factors in Central Europe

  • Female femora in the North are significantly shorter than in the South (p=5^{-4}; beta=-1.987737, se=0.5597)

  • Male femora in the North are very similar to those in the South (p=0.2206; beta=0.4192765, se=0.3413)

  • sexual dimorphism ratios (femora)

  • sexual dimorphism ratios (stature)

  • Effect of PRS on femur length is just significant (p=0.0592; beta=0.7809068, se=0.4047, bf=0.2775743) BF

  • South Central Europe has higher 15N than North (p=0; beta=0.865261, se=0.1425)

  • South Central Europe has lower 13C than North (p=0; beta=-0.38324, se=0.0818)

  • Males in both regions have qualitatively higher nitrogen, but interaction effect is not significant (p=0.8722; beta=-0.0315565, se=0.196, bf=-0.0119678) BF

  • 13C are the same between sexes (p=0.4727; beta=0.0808684, se=0.1125, bf=-1.7486338) BF

  • No statistical relationship between femur length and 15N (p=0.4892; beta=-0.2230126, se=0.3216, bf=-1.4948178) BF

  • No statistical relationship between femur length and 13C (p=0.1143; beta=0.5499144, se=0.3461, bf=-0.6514299) BF

  • Femur length is significantly associated with presence of LEH (p=0.0214; beta=-1.2749452, se=0.5475)

  • Northern individuals more likely to have LEH than Southern (p=0.0018; beta=-1.3857273, se=0.4438)

  • No difference between incidence of LEH in males vs females (p=0.8323; beta=0.1131356, se=0.5343, bf=-1.4245664) BF

  • Interaction effect between sex and LEH on femur length is not significant (p=0.0717; beta=1.3893019, se=0.765, bf=-0.1211312) BF

  • Females with LEH have significantly shorter femora than females without (p=0.0224; beta=-1.3342597, se=0.5696, bf=0.9630603) BF

  • Males with LEH have the same femur length as those without (p=0.7413; beta=0.1863661, se=0.5622, bf=-1.2639157) BF

  • Incidence of cribra orbitalia is significantly higher in the North compared to South (p=0; beta=-1.8895758, se=0.4487)

  • Cribra has no statistical relationship with femur length (p=0.6094; beta=-0.3243139, se=0.6332, bf=-1.2449962) BF

  • Frequencies of porotic hyperostosis are not different between North and South (p=0.5242; beta=-0.2652654, se=0.4165, bf=-1.3452456) BF

  • Porotic hyperostosis is not related to femur length (p=0.8782; beta=0.0567185, se=0.3693, bf=-1.7469342) BF

Patterns of genetic ancestry in the Mediterranean

  • Proportions of WHG ancestry are significantly higher in the Med as compared to Central Europe (p=0; beta=0.3543359, se=0.4382)
  • Average proportion of WHG ancestry in Med (mean=11.37%, se=0.53%), Balkans (mean=5.31%, se=0.57%), South Central (mean=3.2%, se=0.16%), North Central (mean=1.07%, se=0.09%)
  • Clumping/thresholding PRS is lowest in WHG (p=10^{-4}; beta=-0.9032658, se=0.2322)
  • Anatolian clumping/thresholding PRS is similar to Balkans and Central Europeans (p=0.2158; beta=0.3071787, se=0.2476)
  • Proportions of WHG are weakly associated with femur length (p=0.0495; beta=29.7723473, se=14.8062, bf=0.3924611) BF
  • WHG PRS is significantly greater than other groups when computed with LDpred and sibling summary stats (p=0.0021; beta=0.7005291, se=0.2253)

Fig 2

Fig 3

Fig 4

Fig 5

Supplemenary Figures

Supp Fig 1

## Scale for 'x' is already present. Adding another scale for 'x', which will
## replace the existing scale.

## Supp Fig 2

Supp Fig 3

## `geom_smooth()` using formula 'y ~ x'

Supp Fig 4

Supp Fig 5